Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
SOPHIE
Smart Bitches
Maya
Paging Sophie Sullivan. This is a smart bitches wellness check.
You stalked out of Fireside earlier emanating the most badass queen energy, so I’m guessing right about now one Tyler Hansley is either very, very dead or very, very satisfied.
Emmy
I’m hoping it’s door number two, but if you need help burying the body let me know. I was too busy for the gym today, so I could use the exercise.
Sarah
You’re kidding right? He fucked her for sure. Did you see the sex vibes Tyler was throwing off? The way he got all growly when that weirdo guy tried to talk to her?
Maddy
THE POSSESSION. Seriously, I didn’t know Tyler had it in him. He looked like he was about to punch that guy and then throw Sophie over his shoulder and steal her away.
Caitlin
Just like I knew he would.
Sitting in the passenger seat of Tyler’s car, I grin as I read through my friends’ messages.
The car is parked at the curb in front of Tyler’s parents’ house.
He hopped out a few minutes ago after kissing my face off and made me promise to stay here until he came back to get me.
I’m still trying to convince myself the last couple of hours actually happened—that Tyler is someone I kiss now—and true to form, I’m practically vibrating with the need to tell everyone.
Me
Hang the fuck on. Cait, you got that smarmy, aged frat bro to corner me against the bar?
Caitlin
Of course. Tyler needed a push, and I figured a little jealousy was just what the doctor ordered.
I told him you were very single and extremely interested.
Me
Gross. And also, brilliant.
Maya
Cait, you could rule the world. You should rule the world. You would do a way better job than all the mediocre men who keep fucking things up.
Maddy
I was wondering why you banned us from staging a rescue operation.
Caitlin
Because if you rescued her from the dude-bro, Tyler would probably still be sitting at the corner table staring at her with that dopey, lovestruck look on his face.
Me
He wasn’t looking at me like that.
Maddy
Uh, yes he was.
Sarah
One hundred percent he was.
Caitlin
I was trying to save him from himself. It was getting pathetic.
Emmy
I stand in awe. You are diabolical. And a genius. A diabolical genius.
Caitlin
Oh, I know.
Sarah
So, spill, Soph. If we need to bury a body I’ll come for moral support, but these hands were not made to hold a shovel. Scalpel, yes. Garden tools, no.
I laugh, practically kicking my heels as I type.
Me
If we’re burying anyone it’ll be me because Tyler almost killed me with multiple orgasms. Three to be exact. Or maybe four. The last one was so long I have no idea whether it was one or two. I saw god. She was pleased.
Maya
FUCKING RIGHT HE DID.
Maddy
[gif of dancing cat]
Sarah
QUEEN.
Emmy
Excuse me, I think you dropped your crown [row of crown emojis]
Caitlin
How do you feel, Soph?
Me
I feel…happy. Really, really happy. A little nervous about what happens now. Also, you don’t even know the craziest part. Hold on a sec.
Needing to see their reactions in person, I hit the video call button and wait as all their faces pop up on screen.
“You had sex with Tyler,” Sarah practically squeals, beaming at me through the screen.
“Really, really good sex,” I say with a grin. “Like, the best sex anyone has ever had.”
“I’m so happy for you, Soph,” Maddy says, smile on her face. “Don’t be nervous. You and Tyler have been a long time coming, even though he took his sweet time figuring it out.”
I shrug, pulling my feet up onto the seat and resting my chin on my knees. “I don’t know. I’m thinking the time might have been worth it. I mean, not that the last three years haven’t been torture, because holy hell. But he needed this build up, I think, to figure it out for himself.”
“So what made him finally get his shit together?” Emmy asks, flopping back into her millions of pillows.
Caitlin rolls her eyes, kicking back in what I can see is her desk chair at work, which means she went from her own birthday party to the office. I’m not sure if that’s dedication or insanity. “Did you not read the message where I orchestrated him a little bout of raving jealousy?”
I laugh. “That might have pushed him to boil, but he had already been simmering for a while before that. You’re never going to believe this. Like, literally never.”
“Oh my god, I love this night,” Maya says seriously. “Like, I am literally in love with this night. What happened?”
I pause for dramatic flare before holding the phone away from me so they can see my whole face. “Tyler is RenegadeRush.”
Silence. Complete and utter silence for five full seconds before the car fills with the sound of five women talking all at once.
I let them go for a few minutes, my heart overflowing with love for them.
Tyler might be my person, but these women are my soulmates.
The missing pieces of me. I could never do life without them.
“This is the best thing that has ever happened,” Sarah says, wide grin spread over her face.
“We need to know everything, like, yesterday,” Maya orders. “Start talking, Soph.”
“Agree.” Maddy nods. “How did he find out? When did he find out? What happened when he told you he knew? This is like a movie, which is somehow appropriate considering your mutual love of all things rom-com.”
“Leave nothing out,” Emmy says, rolling onto her side and holding the phone out in front of her.
“Hang on.” Caitlin holds up a hand, gray eyes studying the screen. “Where are you right now?”
I look around, having forgotten entirely that I’m still in Tyler’s car.
“Oh, right.” I laugh. “I’m in Tyler’s car parked in front of his parents’ house.
He brought me over here and told me to wait in the car while he did…
well, I’m not entirely sure, actually. He said it was a surprise, but I think I know what he’s up to. ”
And then, I tell them everything. About the night three years ago when I realized I had fallen hopelessly in love with Tyler and him figuring out I was the girl he was talking to on the app and how he set out to make me fall for him because he didn’t realize I already had.
About the interview, minus the California part because I think Tyler has to hear that first. About the kiss and the best sex of my life and how I’m pretty sure we both admitted we love each other and how I feel like I could float away on a pink cloud of happiness.
“Oh my god,” Sarah whispers when I finish, eyes wide. “Like, oh my fucking god.”
“I know,” I say, my eyes filling with unexpected tears made of feelings that are too deep for words.
“I can’t even process it all. What do you even do when you get everything you’ve ever dreamed of all in one night?
I’ve had sex before. Good sex, even. Or at least I thought I had.
But it turns out I didn’t know anything because holy shit, you guys.
Like, seriously, holy shit.” They are the only words I can come up with to describe what happened tonight. “You understand,” I say, eyes on Maddy.
She nods. “I do. It’s different when you’re in love. It changes everything.”
“Yes,” I say quietly. “And I love him. I love him so much it’s worth the risk to our friendship and our families because now that I have him, I can’t imagine a world where I don’t.
Where I don’t get to kiss him and hold his hand and be with him in this way.
” I think back on the night, and the tears I’ve been holding at bay spill down my cheeks.
“He told me there is so much inside of him for me, and it’s like he took the words right from my own heart because the way I love him?
” I shake my head as my tears keep falling.
“It’s big and important and life-changing and everything I’ve ever wanted.
I’ve only ever wanted him. Sometimes I don’t know how it’s possible a heart can hold this much and still keep beating.
I want to be his future. His forever. Because I know without one single doubt he’s mine. ”
“Sophie.”
I jolt in my seat, practically dropping the phone at Tyler’s voice.
Whipping my head to where he stands right outside the passenger door, I look through the window I forgot I’d left open and straight into his eyes—deep pools of blue swirling with emotion and a love so huge I forget how to breathe.
He steps forward, opening the door and taking my hand, pulling me from the car.
Without a word, he takes the phone and ends the call, shoving it into his pocket before wrapping an arm around my waist, his free hand coming up to rest on my cheek.
“Sophie,” he says again, his voice low, almost reverent, as he traces his thumb over my skin, my bottom lip, before bringing his mouth to mine under the dark night sky.
Sliding his hand back into my hair, Tyler cups the back of my head as our mouths move together, his tongue gliding along the seam of my lips, a deep rumble coming from his chest as I open for him and he dives inside.
His tongue strokes along mine and his taste and scent surround me, and I wonder how it’s possible that every kiss we share feels different. New, somehow.
Earlier tonight the kisses were sweet and then frenzied, full of fun and want and the dark heat of desire.
This kiss is something else.
This kiss feels like worship.
It’s hands and lips and teeth and tongues. It’s this and you and always and forever.
This kiss is a joining of hearts and a melding of souls and two people who have known each other their entire lives, stepping into the unknown to write a new part of their story together.
It’s exhilarating and terrifying and joyful and everything I ever wanted and didn’t think I would ever get to have.
I can’t get enough of it.
Of him.
I could stand here forever.
“Holy shit,” Tyler says quietly, easing back and leaning his forehead against mine.
“Yeah,” is all I can come up with to say, words and words and words swirling around in my head. Three words.
I love you.
“Me too,” Tyler says softly, reading my mind as he strokes my cheeks with his thumbs and presses a kiss to my forehead. “I want to give you words, Soph. So many words. But will you come with me first?”
I nod. “Anywhere.”